Monday, 10 June 2013

Some very exciting news that I announced this week -- Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and
the National Poet of Wales Gillian Clarke will both feature in a double-bill at this
year’s PENfro Book Festival.

The literature event, now in its
third year, is held at Rhosygilwen, Cilgerran, in north Pembrokeshire.

We also have top scriptwriter Lucy Gannon (Coronation Street, Eastenders, Soldier Soldier,
Frankie) who will discuss her work in one of the ‘meet the writers’ sessions.

The evening with Carol Ann Duffy
and Gillian Clarke, which will include readings from their work, headlines the
programme on the Saturday, September 14, in the fabulous Oak Hall, Neuadd y Dderwen.

All of us on the PENfro committee are delighted about this news.

The PENfro festival is set to launch
on the evening of Thursday, September 12, with a lively musical and literary
evening; and runs until the Sunday afternoon, September 15.

There will be
plenty going on throughout the event for people of all ages who love books.

Popular local live literature group The Cellar Bards
and Friends take the stage in the Oak Hall on the Friday evening with performances
and readings of a wide range of poetry and prose from guests -- and there will be an open mic session.

The
winners of the first PENfro Poetry Competition will be announced at this event
and the shortlisted candidates will be invited to read their work.

There is a day of workshops for
writers and would-be writers on the Saturday, covering everything from poetry
to fiction, to screenwriting, journalism and e-publishing.

The popular Book Fair is on the
Sunday and there will be opportunities to meet several local authors at book
launches as well as to attend interviews and talks by many writers.

There will be events for children on Saturday and Sunday and the
winners of the

children’s short story competition will be announced during the weekend.

More news will follow over the next few weeks as the programme details are
confirmed.

*This
project has received funding from PLANED through the Rural Development Plan for
Wales 2007 – 2013,
which is funded by the Welsh Government
and the European Agriculture Fund for Rural Development.

Tuesday, 4 June 2013

This lovely town of Cardigan here in west Wales already has a
strong reputation for its home-grown community enterprise initiatives and this week I am
working on the launch of a major new development – locally-owned energy
generation.

The Awel Deg/Fair Wind cooperative is proposing to set up a single
wind turbine on land above the Teifi estuary at Ferwig.

The aim is to provide for some of the electricity demand in the district and to create income to fund other sustainable energy projects in
the area for the benefit of the whole community. The group wants the Cardigan
area to become as self-reliant in energy as possible by creating a range of locally-owned
renewable projects.

At the moment about £20,000 leaves
Cardigan every week in electricity bill payments – and most of that money ends
up in Spain. Awel Deg’s project is the first step on putting that money back
into the local economy.

And shareholders in the project, mostly
local we hope, will get an excellent return on their investment.

Awel Deghas close links
with 4CG -- the community enterprise company based in Cardigan, with over 600
local shareholders -- which owns the Pwllhai centre and car parks, the former
police station and the old courthouse.

The directors
of 4CG fully share Awel Deg’s aims to bring maximum value to the local economy
from community ownership of renewable energy schemes.

The initial proposal, now being
discussed locally, is for a turbine to be installed at Bryn Farm, Ferwig, which
will generate electricity for around 300 local homes over one year. The plan
is for a 500kw turbine, with a height to hub of 45m; 67m to blade tip.

The organisation wants to raise the investment
needed to install the turbine – about £1.25million -- from the sale of shares
to local people. As well as earning a good return on their investment shareholders
will have a say in which future community energy projects should be developed.

A planning application for the proposal
will be made in a few weeks.

At the community wind turbine site at Bryn
Farm, Ferwig, with landowner Huw Jones, right, are members of the Awel Deg/Fair
Wind cooperative, including Dave Gillam, Sarah Wright, Liz Rodgers, Brian Mark
and 4CG chairman Shan Williams.

Awel
Deg chairman, David Gillam, said: “We hope that the Bryn Farm Ferwig Community Wind Turbinewill be
a small step on the road to a greener future for the Cardigan district. This
area is blessed with huge potential for renewable energy generation from wind,
hydro, tidal, biodigesters, and so on. The income from our turbine could
help to unlock some of that potential so that in future all our electricity
needs are met locally.

“With
this income Awel Deg could also support other initiatives that lead to a more
robust, sustainable local economy in which we all share the benefits from
renewable energy.

“But
it is up to people locally, the town council, people in Ferwig, Ceredigion
councillors – what do we all want to see happen here? All around the world
people are saying this is the only realistic future for the planet, our
children, our grandchildren so I believe we should do it here too!”

Saturday, 1 June 2013

Well, I haven’t been posting much
poetry lately, but I have been busily employed in the world of literature, and
poetry in particular.

Having completed April in a heap
after writing a poem a day throughout the month, here I am at the end of
another month. And I have completed just one poem in the last 31 days!

However, I have been busy editing
and collating all the work I did through April, together with other material
already completed over the last 11 months. Submissions of single poems, small
selections and even a mini-collection have been sent off far and wide; and
there are more yet to send.

I have been spurred on to press
that ‘send’ button as much as possible because of one or two acceptances that
have come through. There will be more news on those as they are published, but
for now I am pleased to say that the number of acceptances are exceeding the
number of rejections – so far! It’s a small start towards wider publication,
but a definite start, and a very encouraging one.

I am involved in organising a
couple of local projects that are taking up a lot of my free time right now.
One is working on the committee of the PENfro Book Festival, which I joined
earlier in the year.

Beautiful Rhosygilwen Mansion

This is held in mid-September in
the fabulous location of Rhosygilwen in Pembrokeshire (links below) We have an
evening of the spoken word -- poetry and prose -- with the Cellar Bards and
Friends, a day of workshops for writers (I’ll be doing one on freelance
journalism and ‘Selling Your Story’); a book fair and talks and meetings with
writers in all kinds of genres. And there are some very special guests
headlining on the Saturday night – I am currently working on the press release
to make that big announcement.

The popular Book Fair, in the Oak Hall at Rhosygilwen

There is also an Open Poetry Competition
– for anyone aged 16 or over, which is being judged by award winning poet
Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch. Her wonderful collection ‘Banjo’ is shortlisted for
Wales Book of the Year. I am running the admin for that competition, so I hope
to be very busy around the closing date of July 19. It’s the first time PENfro
has run a poetry competition. If it goes well we will do more in future years, so
do enter – and please get your entries in soon!!!

There is also a short story
writing competition for children, which closes on June 14. Link is below.

Oh, and I am one of the PENfro
Poets – the workshop group based at Rhosygilwen that grew out of last year’s
PENfro Festival. We will publish a small collection of our work later this
summer. And, of course, some of us will be reading our poetry at the Cellar
Bards and Friends evening at PENfro 2013.